Oxford Latin American Graduate Network Graduate Seminar Series: Conceptualizing Criminal Wars in Latin America

Speaker: Raúl Zepeda Gil, PhD researcher, King’s College London

Discussant: Mónica Serrano, Senior Fellow at the Ralph Bunche Institute, Senior Research Associate at the Centre for International Studies, Oxford University

Raúl is a PhD researcher at the  School of Security Studies in King’s College  London, specialising  in  youth,  crime,  and  violent  conflict  regarding  the Mexican  Drug War. He  currently  teaches  at the  War Studies  Department  and the School of Politics and Economics. Before his doctoral studies, Raúl earned a MA in Political Science from El Colegio de  México  and  a  BA  in  Political  Science  and  Public  Administration  from the National Autonomous University of México. Currently, as a PhD Researcher, and before as a policy research on the Mexican Senate think  tank, he has  published  numerous  articles  regarding  drug  policy, violence  in  Latin  America, development, state-building,  youth,  crime, foreign policy, inequality, civil-military relations and Mexican politics. He also coordinated the Second National Conference on Violence and Peace, co-organised by El Colegio de México and the National Commission for Human Rights. Professionally, Raúl  advised the  transition  team  for the upcoming Mexican government in  2018 on  legislative  issues  for  the  2019  National  Budget in  the Secretariat  of  Finance  and  Public Credit  and was  appointed  Director  General  for Legislative  Liaison for the Secretariat of Economy in 2019. As  Director General, Raúl co-coordinated  the  legislative  efforts  to  approve  the new  United  States, Mexico, and Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA), the secondary legislation drafted for the new treaty, and the new food labelling legislation to tackle obesity. His first employment was as head of the department of peace and civil culture for the state government of Morelos, where he advised on crime prevention policy and democratic culture events and worked on the draft of the new Youth Law passed by the local congress.